P&D 55 mpw plan - races

macinalli

Hi all, I'm using the P&D 55 mpw plan for Berlin at the end of September and I see that the plan calls for a series of 3 tune up races at the tail end of the plan. I was wondering if the P&D veterans could give their experience with this as I'm a bit unsure of what races to do.

• Races: What ones did you think worked best? Stamina testers such as a 10 miler or something short & snappy like a 5k?
• Timing: The plan has each of these races the day before a LSR - do you think this is necessary? For example, if I do a midweek 10k should I try and do my LSR the next day or is the weekend ok?
• Number of races: Did you do all 3 races? Did you think you benefited from doing all of them?
• Any other feedback?

Krusty_Clown

Races: What ones did you think worked best? Stamina testers such as a 10 miler or something short & snappy like a 5k?

I generally just followed the guidelines. If it called for 10k-15k I'd do a 10k or 10 mile race (yes I know, a slight discrepancy!) and it if called for a 8k-10k race, I'd do just that.

Timing: The plan has each of these races the day before a LSR - do you think this is necessary? For example, if I do a midweek 10k should I try and do my LSR the next day or is the weekend ok?

It's very much intentional, to reduce your stored glycogen and make you do a long run tired. I'd follow the guidance of the plan.

Number of races: Did you do all 3 races? Did you think you benefited from doing all of them?

I generally follow the 12 week plan, which has only 2 tune-up races, but yes, I'd do both of 'em.

Any other feedback?

Because you're doing tempo sessions at around 10 mile pace, it'a a great opportunity to try and rack-up a 10 mile PB. Same goes for the 5k intervals and a 5k PB attempt. It's easy in the US (where the plans were put together) to find a race on the target date. Not so easy over here, but a time-trial will do just as good a job, though it's a little harder to work as hard in a time trial. Also, the long runs the following day are tough. Take them handy!

beeduybe

Was thinking about this myself. Following the same plan for Dublin but do my LSR's on Saturday's so finding races on Friday's could be pretty tricky especially at that time of the year.

Would doing the race distances at PMP with a warm up and cool down be a good replacement session? The HH advanced plans have similar sessions the day before the LSR.

Krusty_Clown

beeduybe wrote: »

Was thinking about this myself. Following the same plan for Dublin but do my LSR's on Saturday's so finding races on Friday's could be pretty tricky especially at that time of the year.

Would doing the race distances at PMP with a warm up and cool down be a good replacement session? The HH advanced plans have similar sessions the day before the LSR.

Not really. There's a significant difference between 8k-15k race pace and PMP pace. There's also the other benefits of tune-up races that you'll be missing out on. There's a couple of pages in the book on the subject and they're definitely worth a read.

Do you have to do your long runs on a Saturday, or is it something you like doing? If you're stuck with Saturdays, then time-trials would definitely be a better bet.

griffin100

I did all of the called for races in the plan as time trials using my Garmin to measure the distance and McMillan to give me my expected race pace based on my target marathon time. It takes a bit of discipline to hold race pace when running on your own but its doable.

beeduybe

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Not really. There's a significant difference between 8k-15k race pace and PMP pace. There's also the other benefits of tune-up races that you'll be missing out on. There's a couple of pages in the book on the subject and they're definitely worth a read.

Do you have to do your long runs on a Saturday, or is it something you like doing? If you're stuck with Saturdays, then time-trials would definitely be a better bet.

Yeah I read that section of the book. Was interested to see if anybody else had tried any alternative sessions if there was no suitable race but I guess time trials are the obvious choice even if it sounds incredibly tough outside a race environment.

Saturday suits my schedule better but I'm sure I could be able to switch things around if needs be.

ecoli

beeduybe wrote: »

Yeah I read that section of the book. Was interested to see if anybody else had tried any alternative sessions if there was no suitable race but I guess time trials are the obvious choice even if it sounds incredibly tough outside a race environment.

Saturday suits my schedule better but I'm sure I could be able to switch things around if needs be.

you could always try recruit someone faster to try pace you to target time that way they are atleast a visual marker for you

macinalli

Thanks for the replies folks! My P&D plan calls for 3 races that are 2, 4 and 6 weeks out from Berlin race day, with each being 8-15k. It's a bit tricky as the race calendar is full of half marathons around that time (getting ready for DCM) but there are a couple of 10ks available. Have decided to do the Donadea 10k (6 weeks out) and then the BHAA Firhouse 10k (3 weeks out). For the other 'race' I think I'll try a time trial 2 weeks out; I think there are a couple of Boardsies doing Berlin following the same plan so we might be able to arrange some sort of session.